Gender Equality Niger Project #4110

Mentoring for At-Risk Nomadic Girls in Rural Niger

by Rain for the Sahel and Sahara

Mentoring for At-Risk Nomadic Girls in Rural Niger

Project Report | Mar 27, 2025
Education is a RIGHT!

By Katherine Kolios | Executive Director

Mentors at the Tchinagrof Elementary School

Many organizations operating in Niger have cut education funding to focus on “essential needs.” RAIN believes that education IS an essential need, an opportunity that cannot be replaced. Students and their families agree.

Mentors Support Students and Build Community Support for Education:

Since October 2024, 170 local women mentored 851 elementary and middle school students across 28 communities. This includes partnerships with 23 elementary schools and 5 middle schools.

Mentors serve as liaisons between the school system and students’ families, helping parents navigate the school system and advocate for their children. Mentors are trained to work with students on topics including nutrition, hygiene, and reproductive health. Mentors also help reach over 1,800 community children through school-wide trainings -- building skills and awareness of the importance of education.

Supplementary Courses Bridge Gaps for Rural Students:

Students from rural communities enter middle school with weaker academic foundations. As they acclimate to more demanding and varied coursework, they race to bridge the gap with their urban peers. 1,200 rural students are benefitting from free, daily after-school courses, preparing them to demonstrate all they learn when they sit their final exams.

Room & Board through Homestays and at the Agadez Learning Center (ALC)

Most rural students do not have local access to secondary schools. Between RAIN’s homestay program, which provides room and board through local families, and the Agadez Learning Center, a residential center in the city of Agadez, we are helping to house and care for 158 students who had no other access to middle school.

Remarkably, in 2023-2024, we saw improved academic outcomes – even with the year’s unique challenges. The data suggests that this vulnerable youth population is being insulated and that they are leveraging the opportunities available to them to achieve a higher degree of academic success. These students and their dogged determination are what motivate us to believe that success is possible, even against seemingly impossible odds. We are bringing that energy with us into 2025 and beyond!

Students & their mentors in Ingall

Supplementary courses bolster academic support

Links:

Permalink

Oct 10, 2024
Back to School... Eventually

By Katherine Kolios | Executive Director

Jun 13, 2024
June, already!?

By Katherine Kolios | Executive Director

Salele supports her mentees at school and beyond!

170 women mentors and the 841 elementary and middle school students they serve are gearing up for end-of-year. Fortunately, across our 5 partner middle schools, over 1,000 students benefitted from over 670,000 student-hours of free, after school courses - helping ensure they are ready to demonstrate all they've learned in their final exams

We are thrilled to say that our mentors and students have stayed strong - even after a particularly challenging year, with families and communities facing the unknowns of a coup, military leadership, leaving ECOWAS (the Economic Community of West African States), starting the Alliance of Sahel States, and shifting international partnerships.

In these uncertain times, students are guided in their efforts by mentors like Yamaji and Salele:

"As a mentor, I help to educate children and raise awareness among parents. My biggest regret is having left school when I failed the exam. What I truly hope is for our children to be able to continue to study, so they don’t make the same mistake I did." - Yamaji

"You've helped us to rise to the challenge. Before, our children didn't go to school. But today, with your determination to help, we've made the community aware of the importance of education, and we've been able to bring some pupils back to school." - Salele

The leadership of these women is critical - with both mentees and their parents.

Issa Elhaj, the Inspector of Primary Education in Aderbissinat explains why: "RAIN intervenes in five schools in our area. These schools were poorly attended because parents did not understand the importance of school and allowed their children to go whenever they wanted. As a result, absenteeism was very high. But through its intervention, RAIN recruited local women to raise awareness, informing parents hamlet by hamlet and door by door, so they could enroll and keep their children in school, especially girls.

Before the project was launched, attendance was poor in these villages. After our evaluation following RAIN’s intervention, there is a clear improvement in the children’s attendance."

We are grateful for partners like Yamaji, Salele, and Issa for helping these children to access education - a right that should be available to children all the world over.

Yamaji won't let these girls regret dropping out

Links:

Permalink

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 ... 22 ›

About Project Reports

Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.

If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.